A typical EAS system in a retail setting may comprise a monitoring system and at least one security tag or label attached to an article to be protected from unauthorized removal. The monitoring system establishes a surveillance zone in which the presence of security tags and/or labels can be detected. The surveillance zone is usually established at an access point for the controlled area (e.g., adjacent to a retail store entrance and/or exit). If an article enters the surveillance zone with an active security tag and/or label, then an alarm may be triggered to indicate possible unauthorized removal thereof from the controlled area. In contrast, if an article is authorized for removal from the controlled area, then the security tag and/or label thereof can be deactivated and/or detached therefrom. Consequently, the article can be carried through the surveillance zone without being detected by the monitoring system and/or without triggering the alarm.
The security tags may be reusable, and thus include releasable attachment devices for affixing the security tags to the articles. Such attachment devices are further designed to be releasable by authorized personnel only so that unauthorized removal of the security tags from their articles can be avoided. To this end, many attachment devices are made releasable only through the use of an associated special hook or detaching mechanism.
An exemplary security tag employing an attachment device and an associated detacher is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,426,419 (“the '419 patent”), entitled SECURITY TAG HAVING ARCUATE CHANNEL AND DETACHER APPARATUS FOR SAME and assigned to the same assignee hereof. The security tag of the '419 patent includes a tag body and an attachment element or device in the form of a tack assembly. The tack assembly is used to attach the tag body to an article which is to be protected by the security tag. This is accomplished by inserting a tack into an opening in the tag body. When the tack is fully inserted into the opening, it is releasably secured in the tag body via a releasable locking means. Access to the releasable locking means is through an arcuate channel. With this configuration, a special arcuate probe is needed to reach and release the releasable locking means, and thus detach the security tag from the article.
Despite the advantages of this security tag architecture, if suffers from certain drawbacks. For example, the security tag can be defeated by inserting a counterfeit hook or detaching mechanism (e.g., a steel wire) into the arcuate channel so as to release the locking means.